Headlines of the Day

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has cancelled two more TV channel licences in July. With this, the total number of cancellations rises to 197. Both the cancelled licences were in the non-news downlinking category. Real Global Broadcasting’s Food First licence, which was issued on December 23, 2008 has been cancelled. Travel Channel India’s licence under Travel Channel has also been cancelled. The company was issued licence on 8 November 2011. The ministry has also issued nine TV channel licences in July, which takes the count of permitted TV channel licences to 890.

The alliance was called off after the two parties were unable to come to terms on the specifics of the transaction. The ministry has cancelled 42 licences in 2017 until July 31, MIB data showed. The MIB had cancelled 13 TV channel licences in January, one in February, ten in March, ten in May, six in June and two in July. In June, the ministry had cancelled licences of Bangla Entertainment’s Aath, Fast Track Media and Communication’s Techno India Television, Heritage Tele Venture and Media’s 365 Din, Noida Software Technology Park Ltd’s (NSTPL) KBS World, Planet E-shop Holdings India’s Miraclenet, and Pragya Vision’s MahuaaPlus. In May, ten TV licences were cancelled including that of Sony Pictures Networks India’s subsidiary Bangla Entertainment’s non-news uplinking licence under the name Sony Tec. Zeel’s uplinking-only non-news licence Zee TV Russia was also withdrawn.

In March, the ministry had withdrawn 10 licences including seven licences of Star India which were surrendered by the broadcaster. In February, the ministry had cancelled the licence of New Delhi-based Softline Media’s Hindi news and infotainment channel Shri News. The licences of 13 TV channels, including eight news and five non-news channels, were cancelled in January. The companies whose TV channel licences were cancelled includes Triveni Media, Neon Solution, NDTV Ltd, Pompash Fiscal Services and Satlon Enterprise. - Indian DTH Forum